Blog and knitting patterns by Iryna Klionava

Tag: clothes

Hello everyone! Thanks for commenting on the previous post, Cheryl! The mittens keep growing, albeit slowly: unfortunately one cannot knit and learn how to make websites at the same time, so I’m trying to alternate… But I’ll have to knit faster now that the temperatures have fallen below zero. In the meantime, my old mittens will keep me warm as well as they can.

As much as I loved the summer (especially the part when I dipped my toes in salty water), I won’t exaggerate if I call it a total disaster, sartorially speaking. In spite of hours and hours spent reading, thinking and talking about sustainable fashion, I went all the way down the pit of style rut, wearing nothing but jeans, plain black t-shirts and sneakers by the end of August. Oh, and I did wear earrings, but that was the only embellishment I could stand… Call me an ultraminimalist, it’s totally deserved!

I hope I’ve managed to – if not persuade you of the necessity of a fashion revolution – then, at least, make you think of it as a possible way of solving some of the global ethical and ecological challenges.

As the days grow longer and warmer (hm… well, at least in theory), my colour preferences begin to gravitate towards blues and yellows. The dark, “midnight” variety of blue is a recent colour obsession of mine, while yellow is an old favourite. Now, there’s a funny thing about me and the colour yellow: while not being part of “my” palette, it somehow keeps in tune with everything nice and warm deep inside me… as a result of which all things yellow pull me like a magnet (to give you an example, my smartphone sports a most eye-popping lemon yellow skin!), while the combination of yellow and blue is definitely tattooed somewhere on my heart… Thank you, sunflower fields under the bright blue sky! Thank you, daffodils! Thank you, dandelions!

And thank you, pansies!

All right, now I’m going to set my lyre aside and talk clothes. As you have guessed, my spring/summer palette is based on blues (main colour) and yellows (accents), with some amount of white to dilute the whole. Of course, it doesn’t entail a formal interdiction to wear red or green but you know what I mean. The next months will feature lots of denim (hello, blue jeans!), blue skirts, blue/white tops and my favourite pair of (yellow!) shoes. Summer, where are you? I’m ready!

Almost half a year has passed since I first wrote about SAHM’s style issues and how I planned to deal with them (see here and here), so I think it’s time for an update.

Has anything changed? – Well, yes. After a series of merciless purges I’ve managed to get rid of almost every item that I don’t wear, like or treasure. Almost – because one doesn’t change a whole wardrobe in a couple of months (unless your last name is Rockefeller) and a girl must wear something on a daily basis, right?

For now, I’ve kept most of my old t-shirts (nobody sees them under the pullover anyway), my warm roll neck sweater in the “wrong” colour (because my Mum custom-made it for me and because in my priority list warmth comes before colour) but I got rid of at least half of my jeans (I got so efficient that now I only have four pairs left: two old and two new), two pairs of nearly new, quite expensive but very uncomfortable shoes (I’m particularly proud of this one) and a few favourite pre-motherhood tops that became too tight for my post-partum body. The only thing I couldn’t (wouldn’t) let go is my stock of dresses. Which brings me to the second part of this post…

I love dresses but I wear jeans all the time. I have a decent shape and size but I still pull on a pair of jeans every single day. Why so? Well, mostly because nobody wears dresses any more and someone who does looks (and feels) like an alien lost in space and time (or, at least, I do). Dresses are for “special occasions”, jeans are for… ever. Which is kind of sad.

Don’t get me wrong: I love my jeans. I like their practical side and how they get better with wear and tear, I love how denim matches just about any colour you can possibly think of and I really enjoy the casual, relaxed “signature” jeans-y look. But too much is too much. Indeed, if an alien ship lands right now in the middle of, say, the Grand Place of Brussels (or Times Square of New York, or the Independence Square of Kyiv) they’ll probably conclude that our planet looks blue from space because a predominant majority of its inhabitants wrap their bottoms in blue cloth…

But let’s return to my dresses. Presently, I own nine (plus four skirts) and I like all of them but, as I said, I rarely put them on. Hence the challenge!

I challenge myself to wear a dress (or a skirt) every week: at first twice a week, then three and maybe even four times! And I challenge you to do the same! My dear girls, let’s bring dresses back into our lives!

To boost your motivation, here is why you should rather be wearing a dress:

Dresses are self-sufficient: you put on a single item of clothes and you’re ready to go!

Dresses are more flattering for your figure than pants. It might sound incredible but it’s true: pants must repeat the shape of your butt or they’ll fall down. A dress doesn’t care about your butt, it only relies on your shoulders to stay on.

Dresses come in an endless number of shapes and varieties while the choice of pants styles is rather limited.

With a dress, length is generally not a problem while store-bought pants are often too long or, as in my case, too short.

Dresses make girls more girly, both inside and out. When you wear a dress, your back straightens, your eyes shine and your mood sparkles. Don’t take my word for it, check it yourself!

I wore a dress today, and you? I dare you, girls!

P.S. The lovely paper doll at the top of this post can be downloaded for free from the Wee Wonderfuls website.